April 2013

April 27, 2013

Fullback Lawrence Vickers underwent back surgery on Friday and should be ready for training camp, owner Jerry Jones said.

But the Cowboys’ draft signaled a possible move away from the fullback position. The Cowboys might have to decide if Vickers’ $1.2 million salary in 2013 is worth it.

“That is what you look at,” Jones said. “We like him. He has done an outstanding job. As we sit here today, I would say, ‘Yes.’ ”

Jones said the Cowboys will think a lot about the positions of fullback and tight end during the OTAs.

"We want to see to some degree how we are doing things in here with one back," Jones said. "I don't know we are ready to say some of these guys can do some of the things that John Phillips does -- that Phillips did for us last year -- relative to the movement and blocking inside. We don't know that. But we would like to see it. We would like to get a feel for it in OTAs."

Jones said Randle will wear a “club” to protect the thumb, but that it shouldn't slow him down in anything except pass-catching.

Randle described himself as versatile and considered his pass-catching a strength.

“I do everything well: running, blocking. I take pride in my blocking. I take pride in being able to catch, and I take pride in being able to make tough yards and make people miss one-on-one,” he said. “That’s just my game in a nutshell right there."

The Cowboys did not ask sixth-round pick Devonte Holloman about his DUI arrest two years ago, and he hopes there is never a need.

"It wasn’t addressed, but me knowing it might have been the thing to hurt me, I refuse to let it happen again," he said Saturday in a conference call with reporters at Valley Ranch. "It will not be a worry for them or me."

The Cowboys took Holloman, a linebacker out of South Carolina, with their last pick of the draft, taking him in the sixth round. The 22-year-old was arrested in June 2011 near campus at a weekend sobriety and seatbelt checkpoint.

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said the team knew about the arrest and was sensitive to it, considering the death of a player last December in a drinking-related accident, but was confident in its evaluation of Holloman.

"You really trust the sources at the school," Garrett said. "Our scouts do a great job finding out what the circumstances are and helping us decide who the player is and what he’s all about. ... Is this an isolated incident or a pattern of behavior?"

Joseph Randle, the running back out of Oklahoma State
taken by the Cowboys in the fifth round, had little trouble describing his game.

“Being versatile,” he said. “I do everything well: running,
blocking. I take pride in my blocking. I take pride in being able to catch, and
I take pride in being able to make tough yards and make people miss one-on-one.

“That’s just my game in a nutshell right there.”

The Cowboys will count on it in case he has to spell starter
DeMarco Murray, who has missed nine games in his two years in the NFL.

“The NFL is a two-back system now, so guys need other guys to
come in, and you don’t want to drop the tempo off much, so I think we’ll work
well together,” Randle said. “I’m just going to come in and work hard and see
where that gets me.”

William & Mary cornerback B.W. Webb, the Cowboys’
fourth-round pick, is going to use everything he has to make an impression in
the NFL.

Asked in a conference call Saturday about being able to play run
support at his listed 183 pounds, he said, “One-eighty-four. Can’t forget the
one pound.”

OK, then, at 184.

“I’m coming up,” he said. “I’m throwing my body with this
184-pound frame wherever it needs to go. No matter who is carrying the all, I’m
coming down, making those tackles.”

It’s the kind of attitude that may have attracted the Cowboys.

Webb said he has made an effort to stand out during his college
career. He said William & Mary was the only school that offered him, so he
took it.

“It was very competitive,” he said. “It’s one of the best
conferences in 1-AA ball. There are a
lot of great athletes that come out of that division. There are definitely some
ball players down here, so you can’t really overlook the CAA.”

Webb made a big impression in his first game. He got three
interceptions against Virginia,
had eight that freshman year and finished with 11 in his career.

“I worked very hard through camp that year, and I don’t know – I was
actually really nervous before the game,” he said. “I had the jitters. I was
never used to seeing that many people, so it ended up fine.”

After his hot start, Webb collected only three interceptions over
his last three years. But he figures teams stayed away from him.

The Dallas Cowboys, in need of a backup running back, drafted Joseph Randle from Oklahoma State with the 18th pick of the fifth round, two picks ahead of the Atlanta Falcons' selection of TCU defensive end Stansly Maponga.

Randle is the running back ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper targeted in the last couple of weeks as "the back late in the draft that could be this year's Alfred Morris." Morris was taken in the sixth round last year by the Washington Redskins and wound up second in the NFL in rushing with more than 1,600 yards.

Randle is the third recent Cowboys to Cowboys player acquired by Dallas, joining wide receiver Dez Bryant and kicker Dan Bailey as Oklahoma State alums on the roster.

He projects to compete as a backup to DeMarco Murray, and maybe more, given Murray's injury history. Murray is a former Oklahoma Sooners standout, so he and Randle will have to talk their way through that rivalry.

The Star-Telegram's Jimmy Burch, tracking the draft on Twitter: "#Cowboys score real value w #OkState RB Joseph Randle as their 5th round pick. Great value at that point in draft. Versatile, talented RB".

The Dallas Cowboys drafted William and Mary cornerback B.W. Webb with the 17th pick of the fourth round, 114 overall, one pick behind Alabama guard Barrett Jones and one pick ahead of Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones.

ESPN analyst Todd McShay liked the pick of Webb, who had eight interceptions as a freshman, included three against Virginia, but ended with only 11 in his career as opponents evidently stayed away from him.

McShay said the Cowboys have shown they knew how to pick and when to pick, even given the selection of Travis Frederick with the 31st pick of the first round despite his being a third-round projection. But he was the best center in the draft and "is a starter," McShay said.

Webb was one of the players the Cowboys had brought in for a visit and also had a good Senior Bowl.

April 26, 2013

It didn't take Bears tight end Martellus Bennett long to hear about the criticism of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones regarding his time in Dallas.

Bennett was picked in the second round by the Cowboys in 2008 out of Texas A&M. However, he never found his niche alongside Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten and left via free agency to the Giants in 2012. He responded with the best season of his career in New York, turning that into a free agent contract with the Bears.

Jones was asked about Bennett when he talked about changing the team's offense to feature two tight ends following the drafting of Gavin Escobar in the second round on Friday. Jones said the Cowboys tried to do when Bennett was in Dallas but said it never worked because of the former Aggies ineffectiveness.

"Some of the things that we tried to do
with Martellus but we just couldn’t get it done, we couldn’t get it
working," Jones said. "We had packages we worked on for weeks out
here just to get packages in, and he didn’t show. That sounds negative toward
him, but he didn’t show.

Not surprisingly, Bennett sent a twitter message "lol" from his account @joeygryffindor to my account @clarencehilljr Friday night after the draft.

Even though the Cowboys had a Pro Bowl tight end in Jason
Witten, they still drafted San
Diego State
tight end Gavin Escobar in the second round.

Stop me if you have heard this before.

The Cowboys took Anthony Fasano in the second round in 2006
with Witten on
the roster. That didn't work out and he was eventually shipped to the Dolphins
where he thrived. They took Martellus Bennett in the second round in 2008. That
didn't work either and he left before last season as a free agent.

So when Escobar was on the board in the second round Friday
and the talked turned to taking him with the blank overall pick, Jones demanded
that his coaches agree that they will change the offense to feature both Witten and Escobar.

"You saw him coming," Jones recalled is
conversations in the Cowboys war room. "No are we all resolved to doing it
different relative to injecting that influence in this offense? Don't come in
here with same old same old."

Jones continued: "I took a roll call and said if
we got this route with the tight end we are going to shake it up around here
relative to what we are doing. It's going to be different. I joked we are
going to pass the paper around and we are all going to sign it. We are going to
be different."

Jones partially blamed Bennett for some for some of the
failures during his time in Dallas.
He said the coaches really tried to make it work and tried to change the
offense for him _ all to no avail.

"Some of the things that we tried to do with Martellus
but we just couldn’t get it done, we couldn’t get it working," Jones siad.
"We had packages we worked on for weeks out here just to get packages in,
and he didn’t show. That sounds negative toward him, but he didn’t show. Having
said that, we welcome the opportunity to add a tight end, a New England-type
emphasis player, and can this quarterback have both of him? He sure can."

Safety J.J. Wilcox, taken with the Cowboys’ second pick in the
third round, played offense his first three years at Georgia Southern. He was a
slot receiver and also carried the ball, finishing his career with 45 catches for 898 yards and four touchdowns and 138 carries for 968 yards and 13 touchdowns.

But it didn't slow him down when he moved to safety last year. He recorded 88 tackles, three pass breakups and two interceptions.

“It doesn’t make you limited,” he said. “You have to be a good
athlete and a good team player at any position. It helps you with ball skills,
feet, hips. You understand route recognition, how receivers come out. Playing
offense all three years definitely helped me out playing safety in college. Hopefully
it will help me out once I’m in the NFL.”

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said he was impressed by how smoothly
Wilcox adapted to safety last year after not having played the position since
high school.

“If you watch him play, he leaps off the screen at you,” Garrett
said. “He can run, he can hit. He plays with great explosiveness. For a guy who
hadn’t done this since high school, he really seemed to pick up the position
well.”

Wilcox said he likes playing safety, anyway.

“You know, back in the days when you were playing Emmitt Smith
and John Lynch, playing tiger football in the back yard growing up, I laid a
couple guys out,” he said, drawing laughs from reporters. “I got laid out a
couple of times, too. But I was usually one of the ones that wound up on top.”